NIH budget cuts are causing chaos

THE U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH) IS THE largest funder of biomedical research in the world, and its grants create the foundation of basic science knowledge on which major health advances are built.

- ALICE PARK

Equipment like this cell sorter at UC Riverside is supported by NIH grants

On Feb. 14, as part of the Trump Administration's cost-cutting measures, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the NIH, said it was terminating nearly all of the 5,200 probationary employees at HHS. The news came after another drastic change that the NIH announced on Feb. 7: to cut overhead costs in the funding it provides to research grants.

"We were all just dumbstruck," says Dr. Richard Huganir, professor and chairman of the department of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who relies on NIH grants for his research into therapies for autism and intellectual disabilities. "I'm calling it the apocalypse of American science. This will basically change science as we know it in the U.S."

"We're going to see health research kneecapped," says Dr. Otis Brawley, professor of oncology and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Brawley has overseen grants at the National Cancer Institute (which is part of the NIH) as well as received them for his cancer research.

The funding cut took effect on Feb. 9 and targets "indirect costs," which cover facilities and administrative expenses.